


New Year, New Idea

by FactorialRabbits



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: ??? does not mean I'm hiding it from you, Caranthir loves his brothers but hates spending the holidays with them, I attempt to write romance and have no idea if i succeeded, Modern AU, Other, University AU, fic from travelling, it means I literally do not specify, just its not somone he's met before, mentions of rest of the house of Feanor, not even a gender, otherwise go wild, plot what plot?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 07:51:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15262806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FactorialRabbits/pseuds/FactorialRabbits
Summary: Caranthir has escaped his family under the guise of needing to study. He goes to the library to make good on his promise. But fate seems to have other plans.A oneshot for Fëanorian Fun Bingo, for the prompt 'A Moment Of Silence'





	New Year, New Idea

**Author's Note:**

> What is the result of a laptop with 15% battery, a long train journey, and offering to a friend with no silmarillion knowledge that if they pick a prompt, a character from a list (just choose your favourite name) and a genre you'll write a fic of no more than a page? 
> 
> Exactly this.
> 
> The friend's selection was  
> Prompt: A Moment of SIlence  
> Genre: Romance  
> Character: Caranthir
> 
> Prompt is one of mine from the Feanorian Fun Bingo project.

It had been a long winter break. The entire family had descended upon grandfather's house for the holidays. Between Maedhros and Fingon's outrageous flirting, Turgon and Curufin getting into a verbal flame war, and Aredhel and Celegorm boobie trapping the entire building like they were three year olds, Caranthir could not claim to be anything but to be glad to be back at university. Far, far away from his awful, squabbling relatives.

He loved them, of course, but sometimes they were utterly unbearable.

His excuse for the early escape had been January exams. They were real enough, but he could almost certainly manage with far less revision than he'd implied he needed to the family. Still, if he was using them as an excuse to avoid having to sit through another debate entirely based around semantics, he felt he should at least look like he was working. And if his parents were impressed by his dedication to his studies, well, that was just a bonus.

And that was how, he found himself sat nearly alone in the university library, scowling at a textbook, at 2pm on New Year's Day. The text made no more sense than it had half an hour ago, but maybe if he squinted a little harder... No, that wasn't working. With his headphones in, playing some classical study music collection Maglor had mixed him for Christmas (he would never confess to the fact that it was helping his concentration), Caranthir blocked out the rest of the world. He narrowed it down to his eyes, his hands, the textbook and the work of some probably famous pianist. 

For hours he sat, CD looping and slowly trawling through the syllabus, something changed. 

It took Caranthir a few moments to work out what the problem was - the music had been replaced by the low murmuring of a library in use. He picked up his phone to check it, and found the battery had run dry. He suppressed the annoyed noises he thought necessary to the situation, but would be frowned upon in such a place, and looked around for a clock.

He didn't find one, but he did find something else instead. As he gazed around the room, Caranthir found his eyes meeting those of another student. Their eyes - absolutely stunning. Caranthir readjusted his focus, finding their owner to smiling at him. 

So he smiled back.

The person gave a small wave, before picking up their books and wandering off towards the self-service kiosk. He watched for a few moments, determining them to be the most beautiful person he had ever laid eyes upon. At that moment, Caranthir had to make a decision; introduce himself to this person, or another few hours of spent with Frege.

It wasn't really a choice.

Caranthir shoved everything into his bag, satisfied to damn Frege back to his own century, and tossed it over a shoulder. It took a few strides to catch up to the person, during which he tried his absolute damndest to suppress the nerves.

Once he did so, he took a deep breath, and looked to them with his best smile. He knew it would be a poor attempt - smiling was not natural for him, and neither was talking to people - but damn did he try.

"You want to get coffee?"

The beautiful person grinned, winking to him. 

**Author's Note:**

> For the curious, Caranthir is studying Mathematics and Philosphy, and if I ever come back to this I'm stealing. Using UK systems because that's what I know. The course I referenced to work out who one might study on such a course is from Oxford University. I am, however, uncertain if Oxford does January exams, just that my uni did.


End file.
